Unsettled Lives in Unsettled Times: College Student Strategies of Action in Response to COVID-19 Regulations on Campus

Roles

Alumni author: 

Julia Piness '23, Gettysburg College

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-15-2025

Department 1

Sociology

Abstract

Piness and Harger use in-depth interviews to explore the ways that on-campus students at a selective liberal arts college responded to COVID-19 regulations in spring 2021. They contribute to the literature on risky behaviors by showing that the “risk frames” these students adopted emphasized the social (wanting to be with friends) and situational (wanting to avoid punishment) concerns for their risky behavior in a setting where the risk of getting others sick was not a salient influence on their behaviors. They also provide a novel case study for “tool kit” approaches to culture by examining the “unsettled” lives of students in “unsettled” times while responding to calls for cultural sociologists to pay increased attention to interactional contexts. Finally, the focus on students at a selective liberal arts college also allows them to make an important addition to research on student responses to risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, which typically focuses on quantitative surveys of students at large institutions and provides insight into student responses to college behavioral regulations more broadly.

DOI

10.1111/soin.70040

ISBN/ISSN

0038-0245

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